Advise & Consent

Viewed July 20, 2018. One of Preminger's most fascinatingly ambivalent movies.

B+W 60s film that revolves around the appointment of a new Secretary of State. I enjoyed the clever banter from some very strong characters. This movie has no action, but it kept me in suspense. There is no murder, or puzzle to solve, just a good old fashion political drama. Although this was made nearly 50 years ago, I believe it is still relevant even today, especially if you enjoy a bit of politics with your morning news. This is the art of movie making that is lacking in today's cinema.

Absorbing when it stays away from the melodramatic (it did seem odd how little Fonda is in this). A later movie, The Best Man, bears a strong resemblance to this in more than a few details - I'd recommend it over this just slightly but they both work.

Like Anatomy of a Murder, it showcases Otto Preminger's uncanny ability to make long, understated films that challenge the Hays Code in a very classy way. I was expecting a Fonda-thon and instead I got a big slice of decadent Charles Laughton pie with a Burgess Meredith drizzle. Walter Pidgeon, Don Murray, and Gene Tierney also put on a solid show. It's impossible to look away from Tierney, and she gets my favorite scene in the film when she explains the US Congress to foreign dignitaries.

A rarity--a political (as opposed to a biblical) epic. Preminger keeps the whole thing firmly in his ironic control--easier than it would be with a biblical epic--and produces a very good film. Laughton hams it up as an old fashioned Southern senator--which is exactly how such a part should be played--and Don Murray and George Grizzard deliver the performances of their careers.

I thought this was decent. Certainly nothing amazing, but it tackles topics such as communism and homosexuality in an interesting way. I also thought it would have been better with more Fonda, but the actors do decent jobs. Not the most interesting film, but does accurately depict the political posturing that probably has gone on for decades if not centuries.

Okay movie. Good look at behind the scenes politics of the era.

One of the best American political movies

Terribly dry and over-written. Not overwhelmingly bad, just boring. Even a couple of fantastic performances from Fonda and Laughton can't save it.

I'm not into politics that much, but this was a reasonably interesting movie. Unfortunately it kind of falls apart with the homosexual subplot. Also, Henry Fonda practically disappears after the first half, even though the story revolves around him.

"Preminger's visual savvy turns that most staid and insufferable of social terrariums, the floor of the U.S. Senate, into a vibrant, perpetually shifting Voronoi diagram." - Eric Henderson

I love political movies ("All The President's Men" is my favorite film) and this one has an interestingt subject. If only it were presented in an interesting fashion. It's as if they had no faith the audience could handle a wee bit of excitement or intrigue, so they just laid all the plot points out on the table as if it were a lecture. Good story, bad storytelling.

A fictional look into the inner circles of American politics that's both well-knitted together with straightforward storytelling and a fair amount of distinctive acting performances. It can't help but to look oversimplified in terms of depicting the political landscape, but it works.

Here is the calm antidote to the rising hysteria in Frank Capra's Washington films. For whereas his idealism was a brittle front for reaction, self-pity, and a refusal to play ball with politics, so this Otto Premingewr film is a cool, ironic portrait of an argumentative chamber set on compromise, bargaining, and a final adherence to the virtues of the Code. Democracy is hard work, not righteousness. It is always middling, muddled, and sociable - and very seldom extreme, fierce, filibustering.

Mindless "inside" story of Washington political shenanigans, directed by Otto Preminger ... The procession of people helps to take one's mind off the overwrought melodrama.

Henry Fonda has a way of playing the kind of man I would vote for. What makes Advise & Consent intriguing, however, is that Fonda's on screen for less than half of the film. What Fonda says to defend his position as a nominee for Secretary of State is of astonishing insignificance compared to what's done behind his back, and what he does behind other backs, to approve or deny his appointment as head of foreign affairs.